Wedding!!!

The big day for my sister finally came and went! Here are some pics and favorite moments from the wedding:
(some are blurry and I am so sad about it)

 150 4" applesauce spice cakes as favors

 waiting outside the temple 

 yay for marriage! 

 Goodell Girls 

 family with out of town cousins

Top moments:

1. The ceremony. Meaningful and sweet.

2. Steven's nephews being so excited to help clean up. "Annie... do you have a garbage bag? I am collecting cans for my school's recycling project."

 "(as someone takes plates of cake to the cake table) Hey! Can I take one??" I love those little boys. Wish I had pictures of that. 

3. Steven's niece dancing like crazy once dancing started. 

4. Eating cafe rio wedding style... it was sooooo good. (you DO want cafe rio to cater your wedding, I promise). 

5. The coconut lime cake was amazing (I actually didn't try this until after).

6. Walking into the Commander's House for the first time and seeing all the flowers set out 

 bad blurry photo of the Commander's House (aka the reception center) 

 GORGEOUS flowers  in mason jars done by neighbor Lexi, she also did a HUGE piece for the buffet, it was  so pretty! 

Burlap linens and vintage lace overlays are adorable. 

And of course I didn't get a picture of the cake. oh yes, there was more cake. Coconut with lime curd cake and chocolate cake with cherry filling. Joy. 

Hopefully I will have more pictures to come and more blog posts. It was a beautiful day and we are so happy for Katherine and Travis! 

Cake Experiment

A few weeks ago, I had the strangest craving for spice cake.

I really believe that spice cake is underrated and not given enough credit. Of course, chocolate is my favorite kind of cake, but spice is definitely up there as one of my favorite flavors.

To satisfy my craving, I (with the help of husband) made a spice cake for a ward potluck, but we added something different to make it ummm... different: melted white chocolate.

Oh my gosh, and it was heavenly. If white chocolate and fall spices got married, this cake would be their baby.

 It was joyous and wonderful (and the sunday after the potluck, an old man in the ward came to tell me that it tasted delicious and also asked me if I worked in Disneyland because I look so much like Snow White... ha.) 

We also added this amazing syrup to the cream cheese frosting. This, is Buttermilk Syrup, and once you try it you will never need regular syrup again. You make it with buttermilk, lots of butter, and sugar. After cooking it a while it starts to taste like caramel. It's a recipe from one of my old Young Women's leaders and it's so good! So good, I am going to share the recipe with everyone. Go home and make it, then put it on pancakes, french toast, ice cream, or just eat it plain on a spoon. 

Buttermilk Syrup

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. corn syrup

Combine butter, sugar, and buttermilk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil 1 minute and add vanilla, soda, and corn syrup. Let it cook until it turns golden brown. Serves 4 to 5. 

Thank you Sarah for such a great recipe. Happy cooking everyone! 

Neglect (and some pretty pics)

I have been neglecting this dear little blog lately... I don't really have a good excuse (except for wedding planning, work, school, going out of town, etc.).

We went up to my Grandpa's Cabin this weekend, and despite the snow, it was still a great weekend. We made chili, biscuits, dough nuts, and we went to Park City. So much fun!

Here are some pics:

 Steven kneading dough 

 Saturday- all the snow still there!

 homemade doughnuts (To Mark, Lisa, Courtney, and Paige. I promise we didn't try to copy you! Although seeing your doughnut pics made me 10 times more excited about making them...)

pretty!

Sigh... it was a great weekend. Very relaxing. 

Coming up: White Chocolate Spice Cake (aka heaven-in-cake-form)

Let them eat cake

I just wanted to share this super cute cake my mom did for a wedding a few weeks ago.

I think it's really adorable (the stripes are edible ribbon). 

Walking on Sunshine...

The NAMIWalk on Saturday was a HIT! I had so much fun. Thanks to everyone who made it successful and came out to support me!

 Brent, the juggler. He is a part of Wasatch Youth Jugglers and didn't charge anything to come and do juggling for the kids. And they loved it! 

 Team name: Walking on Sunshine. Aren't these some great shirts?? 

 Mom and Tiff doing face painting... 

 Whole team minus Russell 

 My friends Matt and Abby came and did Leather Stamping and other fun games with the kids, thanks you guys!! 

Being on the Walk Committee was hard and time consuming, but it was so fun to see how it all turned out in the end. 

For those of you who haven't heard of NAMI, or the National Alliance on Mental Illness, let me fill you in. NAMI's mission is to reduce the stigma of mental illness in the community and to provide (free) support to those who are suffering. The Walk was to help them raise funds so they can continue to provide these services to the community. 

I loved being on the Walk Committee and supporting NAMI with their mission, I can't wait until next year! 

Thoughts in my head right now

Katherine's wedding...NAMIWalk...Jewish Wedding Project... Katherine's wedding...NAMIWalk....Jewish Wedding Project....Katherine's wedding....NAMIWalk.... and so on and so forth. My head might explode right now. It's one of those crazy weeks.

Not bad crazy, it's definitely the "fun" kind of crazy, except for the moments where I can't remember what I'm doing for which event. I have to remind myself that I don't have to pick up a chuppah (planning a Jewish wedding for school) for the NAMIWalk or that I don't need to plan potato sack races for Katherine's wedding. I'll be glad this weekend when I'll have the NAMIWalk crossed off my list.  Here are some of the thoughts going on in my head:

Jewish Wedding (this is fake, but it's for school)

Budget: $120,000 (I know right??)

I really haven't made much progress on this. I know nothing about Jewish Weddings except that there is a chuppah... which I learned from Gilmore Girls.

So, naturally, the chuppah should be made Gilmore Girls style:

 Also... I think this should be a mountain wedding. It just sounds nice, doesn't it?

NAMIWalk:

This includes:

-Leather Bracelet Stamping (thank you Matt and Abby!)
-Relay Races
-face painting
-Brautwurst (I'm not in charge of the Brauts but it sounds good right now,  so it's on my mind)
- Juggling
- Team T shirts


The NAMIWalk is this Saturday at Valley Regional Park, it will be a great time!

Katherine's Wedding:

Burlap linens (yup. burlap). Scrim, green, or muslin sashes for chairs? What to choose? 

 (I'm in love with the burlap, great for a countryish/rustic/mountain wedding)

 Is it ok not to put chair covers on old wood chairs with maroon pads? Even though your colors are orange and green and will clash badly with maroon...

 sigh...maroon. And my mom's leg right there.

Katherine has also expressed a desire to include S'mores in the wedding somehow... after all, what says mountains and rustic more than a good, old fashioned s'more?

She actually hasn't mentioned this to me in a few weeks... so I don't even know if she still wants it (by the way, do you still want it Katherine?), but that doesn't mean I can't do some poking around. 

"Poke around" is exactly what I did, and I found this:

 S'mores cake from a website called "Desserts for Breakfast "

I pretty much need to have this now. If Katherine doesn't want it, I will just make some for myself and eat it in front of all the guests at the wedding. Because, that's really good manners and stuff.  

So yeah. I hope you enjoyed that. You will probably be looking forward to the day when I won't always be blogging about weddings and things.  

Does anyone know anything about Jewish weddings? Or what kind of fabric I should get for sashes?

Wedding Idea

Now that I am taking event planning classes at SLCC, my mind is on wedding planning a lot. So, here is my latest idea:

Have you ever seen Arrested Development?


If you haven't, you should. It's hilarious.



I have a wedding reception idea that was inspired by this show.

Introducing....

 The Frozen Banana Stand.

Wouldn't this be so great?? I would totally go to a reception if I knew there was going to be a Frozen Banana Stand (especially if George Michael and Maybe were there). 

I can tell some of you are still doubting me. Here are reasons why this is such a great idea:

1. It involves fruit,  chocolate, and toppings. You're getting several of your basic food groups (my main food groups are fruit and chocolate) in one food choice.

2. It's different. There are a lot of receptions out there with gelato or ice creams stands now, and while that is delicious, it's just not as exciting as it used to be. It's good, just not as different anymore. Sorry for any ice cream/gelato stand lovers out there. 

3. They are delicious.

4. Just look at the picture:

Will someone please get married and do this for me??? I will plan your entire wedding for free, I will buy the bananas, and man the banana stand. And hug you and cry with joy.

PS - remember "There's always money in the banana stand" (for all the other arrested development fans)